KVR Audio

Christian1979 · Post by **Christian1979** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 8:51 am

Hi

I'm searching for a good GM Library (128 GM-Standardsounds + Drumkits) as VSTi or DXi Plugin...

I use Cakewalk Sonar X1 as Sequencer (64bit)...

I'm looking now for an replacement for "Native Instruments Bandstand", because this Synth is no longer being developed and supported...

I need a good sounding GM-Synth, where the Instruments are automatically loaded to the tracks (like Bandstand), and not mannually assign each instrument to each channel...

Beacause I wanna use Standard-GM Midifiles...

Can someone give me a hint?

RexXx · Post by **RexXx** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 9:32 am

Halion Sonic, since v1.5.
VSTi and standalone (with integrated MIDI player).

Christian1979 · Post by **Christian1979** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 10:11 am

is there an alternative GM-Synth?

Beacause Steinberg don't offer a Trial-Version of this product, and I first wanna try out, how it sounds with my Midi-Files...

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 10:26 am

Christian1979 wrote:I'm searching for a good GM Library (128 GM-Standardsounds + Drumkits) as VSTi or DXi Plugin...

I use Cakewalk Sonar X1 as Sequencer (64bit)...

You find no use of the GM synth Roland TTS-1 that is included in Sonar?

Christian1979 · Post by **Christian1979** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 10:42 am

oh no, the tts-1 sounds very "crappy" in my opinion...

"Bandstand" was nearly perfekt in the sample-quality (realistic sounds)!
Its really a bummer that Native-Instruments has discontinued this great product!!!

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 10:45 am

If you can make do with samples, this thread could be of interest to check out

Crackbaby · Post by **Crackbaby** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 11:20 am

Use the SFZ version of the samples with either TX16Wx version 2 (in public beta right now) or aria player. Zampler plays them way wrong. I haven't tried them with anything else, but with the mentioned two they sound beautiful.

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 11:40 am

I hope you do know that the so called "crap GM" sounds comes from limited ROM sizes back in yester-year?

2MB, 4MB and 8MB as "deluxe" versions were pretty common.

EDIT - Found the correct specs - sorry for the misinformation:
My Yamaha DB50XG had 4MB(!) Wave ROM, and it covered XG and TG-300 sounds as well. My MU-15 (which is pretty much the equivalent to the DB50) didn't run any higher either.

I remember that there were software versions of the Yamaha XG series, also with only 2MB and 4MB - now discontinued - but they sounded (IMO) just as good as the hardware (one being 22kHz, one being 44kHz).

I wouldn't disregard small-cheapo sounding GM synths, because this is what they actually are! The better the sounds, the less GM "sounding" they are. GM stands for "General MIDI", a standard to define which instrument is on which programm (hence: general). The sound itself is defined by the available wave ROM.

In case of the SF2 pack, it's a heavy modified/high quality soundset. So if you're after the "old" GM "sound" (yes, quotation marks on purpose), go with an old synth or grab a cheap hardware module.

If you're just after a standard GM module with the best sound possible: either that SF2 pack, HalionSonic, the old EDIROL HyperCanvas (also discontinued).

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 11:41 am

Crackbaby wrote:Use the SFZ version of the samples with either TX16Wx version 2 (in public beta right now) or aria player. Zampler plays them way wrong. I haven't tried them with anything else, but with the mentioned two they sound beautiful.

If the OP has Sonar probably also got Dimension, would suggest to use that as SFZ player.

crisis-at-music · Post by **crisis-at-music** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 11:48 am

Compyfox wrote:AFAIR, my Yamaha DB50XG had 64MB Wave ROM, but then again it covered XG and TG-300 sounds as well. My MU-15 (which is pretty much the equivalent to the DB50) already had 64-128MB Wave Rom.

I am pretty sure the DG50XG has only 4MB of WaveROM, like my MU-10 (which is a MU-15 without keys and knobs). Even the MU-128 and the SW1000XG sound card have "only" 24MB ROM.

Christian1979 · Post by **Christian1979** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 11:55 am

I'm just looking for an easy way to play my Standard-Midifiles in HighQuality

And I don't wanna load every single Instrument manually with several synth-plugins to the MIDI-Channels... I'm looking for a solution, where the Patches are loaded automatically to the MIDI-Channels (like as in Bandstand)...

yes I have Dimension LE (its included in Sonar X1).
Is it possible to load the sfz-File with this Plugin?

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 11:58 am

Christian1979 wrote:yes I have Dimension LE (its included in Sonar X1).
Is it possible to load the sfz-File with this Plugin?

Yes, you can play them single, or layer them up to 4 layers thick if you want to.

Click in the Load Multisample window that says 'Empty', then navigate to the desired SFZ file. Double-click on it, and now you should hear it when you play Dimension.

Christian1979 · Post by **Christian1979** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 12:01 pm

ah, cool

and the patches are automatically loaded to the different MIDI-Channels?

carrieres · Post by **carrieres** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 1:24 pm

Crackbaby wrote:Zampler plays them way wrong.

can you explain me what is the problem with Zampler ? i will report it to the beta forum
thanks you for your help

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 1:37 pm

Christian1979 wrote:and the patches are automatically loaded to the different MIDI-Channels?

That I'm not sure about, but I guess you can assign the programme to do that if you want to.

I'm using Dimension Pro, dunno if there can be restrictions in the lite version of that prog.

GM Library (VSTi or DXi)?